Data Structure Primitives on Persistent Memory: An Evaluation

Abstract: Persistent Memory (PMem), as already available, e.g., with Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory, represents a very promising, next-generation memory solution with a significant impact on database architectures. Several data structures for this new technology and its properties have already been proposed. However, primarily only complete structures are presented and evaluated. Thus, the implications of the individual ideas and PMem features are concealed. Therefore, in this paper, we disassemble the structures presented so far, identify their underlying design primitives, and assign them to appropriate design goals regarding PMem. As a result of our comprehensive experiments on real PM hardware, we can reveal the trade-offs of the primitives for various access patterns. This allowed us to pinpoint their best use cases as well as vulnerabilities. Besides our general insights regarding PMem-based data structure design, we also discovered new combinations not examined in the literature so far.